Coronavirus and Walt Disney World general discussion

[correcaminos]

Spikes increasing as HDD and CDD increase and spike decreasing as HDD and CDD decrease is not of interest? If we go through 40-50 spikes with the same relationship, will that qualify as correlation?

Your three waves had no correlation at all other than a natural flow of peaks and valleys. Sorry?
If there were solid connections I'd be with you on this. For now? Not really

 

[MisterPenguin]

How did FL end up with one of best Covid case and death rates in US?

Florida was recording 101 cases per 100,000 people and 1.77 new deaths per 100,000 during the peak of its Covid surge. These numbers have since fallen to nine cases per 100,000 and 0.2 deaths per 100K.

www.dailymail.co.uk

*IF* COVID 'waves' come and go in a two-month cycle, and mitigation (like masks) does little to nothing. Then there's nothing to do except just ride it out, right?

Except, there is something we can do: Get vaccinated.

Florida at the beginning of this past Summer was in the bottom half of the list of states with the most deaths per capita from COVID. And now? It's number eight and on track to surpass New York for the most number of deaths per capita.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

Canada's Wonderland will require proof of vaccination for those 12+ to enter the park as of Nov 13, the first day of WinterFest. This was not the case earlier this year. Does this make it the first amusement park in North America to require vaccination?

I suspect this is in response to provincial rules where venues that require vaccination can operate at full capacity. Wonderland would already be limiting the number of people in due to most of rides being closed for the winter season, so this lets them get more in.

As of now, over 88% of provincial residents aged 12+ have had at least one dose, over 84% with both.

 

[danlb_2000]

The virus doesn't just decide to stop infecting people, so there is causality but it's probably not one simple thing but a combination of many.

 

[Andrew C]

Canada's Wonderland will require proof of vaccination for those 12+ to enter the park as of Nov 13, the first day of WinterFest. This was not the case earlier this year. Does this make it the first amusement park in North America to require vaccination?

I suspect this is in response to provincial rules where venues that require vaccination can operate at full capacity. Wonderland would already be limiting the number of people in due to most of rides being closed for the winter season, so this lets them get more in.

As of now, over 88% of provincial residents aged 12+ have had at least one dose, over 84% with both.

I miss Hanna barbera land.

 

[EpcoTim]

So I shouldn't open my windows when people come over for Thanksgiving?

You’re from western Michigan so you should be familiar with the Dutch oven, do that to weed out and kill all the non-vaxxies.

 

[Incomudro]

Look again. The officers are definitely masked.

I'm sorry, I saw that - and knew that.
I mistyped.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Canada's Wonderland will require proof of vaccination for those 12+ to enter the park as of Nov 13, the first day of WinterFest. This was not the case earlier this year. Does this make it the first amusement park in North America to require vaccination?

I suspect this is in response to provincial rules where venues that require vaccination can operate at full capacity. Wonderland would already be limiting the number of people in due to most of rides being closed for the winter season, so this lets them get more in.

As of now, over 88% of provincial residents aged 12+ have had at least one dose, over 84% with both.

Six Flags Magic Mountain and Universal Studios Hollywood require proof of vaccination or recent negative test due to Los Angeles County requirements.

 

[mmascari]

Florida at the beginning of this past Summer was in the bottom half of the list of states with the most deaths per capita from COVID. And now? It's number eight and on track to surpass New York for the most number of deaths per capita.

What do those stats look like if you exclude prior to June 2020 when we didn’t know anything well?

What do those stats look like if you exclude prior to January 2021 when we didn’t have a vaccine?

Presumably, everyone learned from the early disasters and should have adjusted for better outcomes later, or not.

 

[BrianLo]

Despite Canada "wiping the floor" with respect to vaccination rate, it isn't like the cases there are trending towards zero.

View attachment 598010

This is a better visualization adjusting for population. You'd be surprised how much better Canada did in this recent wave.

*ignoring North West Territories with a population of 45k, population adjustment gets dicey.

COVID-19 in the U.S.: How do Canada's provinces rank against American states?

Looking at confirmed coronavirus cases per million people, how do the U.S. states compare to Canada's provinces and territories?

www.ctvnews.ca

 

[BrianLo]

Wow, this part is interesting, :
In a statement released Wednesday afternoon, the Ford government said it is a complex issue but pointed to the negative impact a similar policy had on the healthcare system in B.C., where more than 3,000 workers were terminated, forcing the cancellation of surgeries and diagnostic tests.

My problem with Ontario's take is that Alberta went the opposite direction of BC, tried to go with no mandates and the health care system is currently far more in shambles than BC is facing.

COVID spread is far worse for health care than the vaccine requirement.

I'm not an authority by any means, but anecdotally I do work in both and can confidently say which system is in shambles and which is not. But if I had to chose, health care mandated vaccines or passports for the general populace, I think the later is more meaningful.

 

[Lilofan]

University of Google. Class of 6:53am

In regards to Google, if you apply to work for them no need to supply them with your personal information. They already have it on you.

 

[DCBaker]

"Pfizer Inc. said Friday that its experimental antiviral pill for COVID-19 cut rates of hospitalization and death by nearly 90% as the drugmaker joins the race to bring the first easy-to-use medication against the coronavirus to the U.S. market.

Currently all COVID-19 treatments used in the U.S. require an IV or injection. Competitor Merck’s COVID-19 pill is already under review at the Food and Drug Administration after showing strong initial results, and on Thursday the United Kingdom became the first country to OK it.

Pfizer said it will ask the FDA and international regulators to authorize its pill as soon as possible, after independent experts recommended halting the company’s study based on the strength of its results. Once Pfizer applies, the FDA could make a decision within weeks or months."

"Pfizer released preliminary results Friday of its study of 775 adults. Patients taking the company’s drug along with another antiviral had an 89% reduction in their combined rate of hospitalization or death after a month, compared to patients taking a dummy pill. Fewer than 1% of patients taking the drug needed to be hospitalized and no one died. In the comparison group, 7% were hospitalized and there were seven deaths.

“We were hoping that we had something extraordinary, but it’s rare that you see great drugs come through with almost 90% efficacy and 100% protection for death,” said Dr. Mikael Dolsten, Pfizer’s chief scientific officer, in an interview.

Study participants were unvaccinated, with mild-to-moderate COVID-19, and were considered high risk for hospitalization due to health problems like obesity, diabetes or heart disease. Treatment began within three to five days of initial symptoms, and lasted for five days.

Pfizer reported few details on side effects but said rates of problems were similar between the groups at about 20%.

An independent group of medical experts monitoring the trial recommended stopping it early, standard procedure when interim results show such a clear benefit. The data have not yet been published for outside review, the normal process for vetting new medical research."

More below -

Pfizer says COVID-19 pill cut hospital, death risk by 90%

Pfizer says its experimental pill for COVID-19 cut rates of hospitalization and death by nearly 90% among patients with mild-to-moderate infections.

apnews.com

 

[Heppenheimer]

Two important news items today (I can't link either because I suck at doing those types of things on my phone).

One, Pfizer stopped the clinical trial of their proposed oral anti-COVID medication after initial results showed an 89% reduction in hospitalizations versus placebo among patients at higher risk. Presumably, they will now apply for an EUA, and also study the general population. Their medication works similar to many HIV drugs already on the market, and in fact, is a combination pill with the existing protease inhibitor ritonovir.

Two, the UK approved Merck's molnupiravir, the first oral anti-COVID medication on the market. The US and Canada should follow soon. This and the recent EAU for pediatric vaccines will hopefully help blunt the effect a winter surge. But of course, you can lead a horse to water...but many of our horses seem to refuse to drink in the middle of a hot desert purely out of spite. Or they've "done their research about water".

EDIT: And it looks like DCBaker beat me to the Pfizer story...

 

[Chip Chipperson]

Two important news items today (I can't link either because I suck at doing those types of things on my phone).

One, Pfizer stopped the clinical trial of their proposed oral anti-COVID medication after initial results showed an 89% reduction in hospitalizations versus placebo among patients at higher risk. Presumably, they will now apply for an EUA, and also study the general population. Their medication works similar to many HIV drugs already on the market, and in fact, is a combination pill with the existing protease inhibitor ritonovir.

Two, the UK approved Merck's molnupiravir, the first oral anti-COVID medication on the market. The US and Canada should follow soon. This and the recent EAU for pediatric vaccines will hopefully help blunt the effect a winter surge. But of course, you can lead a horse to water...but many of our horses seem to refuse to drink in the middle of a hot desert purely out of spite. Or they've "done their research about water".

EDIT: And it looks like DCBaker beat me to the Pfizer story...

I would hope that enough anti-vaxxers are willing to get tested if they are (or even suspect they may have been) exposed to someone with the virus or if they feel any symptoms. That way, the anti-viral medications might actually be useful in helping to reduce how many people they spread the virus too and/or preventing them from taking up too many hospital beds that could be used for other people. I do know some anti-vaxxers who won't do that, though, because "it's no big deal." Denial runs deep for some people, I guess. I hope that mindset isn't prevalent enough to keep these new drugs from having a positive impact if/when they are approved here.

 

[Heppenheimer]

I would hope that enough anti-vaxxers are willing to get tested if they are (or even suspect they may have been) exposed to someone with the virus or if they feel any symptoms. That way, the anti-viral medications might actually be useful in helping to reduce how many people they spread the virus too and/or preventing them from taking up too many hospital beds that could be used for other people. I do know some anti-vaxxers who won't do that, though, because "it's no big deal." Denial runs deep for some people, I guess. I hope that mindset isn't prevalent enough to keep these new drugs from having a positive impact if/when they are approved here.

Maybe at least because Pfizer's proposed drug comes from a pre-existing and widely used drug class, there might be less resistance. There's more than a few reasons why HIV is no longer a global health threat, but protease inhibitors are at least a substantial part of that reason.

 

[Heppenheimer]

Speaking of the "what about Germany?" debate yesterday, here's a graph that shows several European countries' vaccine progress:

COVID-19 Data Explorer

Explore global data on COVID-19.

ourworldindata.org

I was more than a little surprised. Several of the countries that have a reputation for getting things right most of the time are near the bottom of the list (Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway). Portugal manages to top the list at 87% of the eligible population fully vaccinated. For comparison, the worst performer on the list is Austria at 63%, which is still better than the US's pathetic mark at 59%. The worst area of Germany for both vaccination rates and COVID cases right now, is (unsurprisingly) the same federal state, Saxony, with Thüringen and Bavaria not far behind sharing the same pattern, while highly vaccinated (and very densely populated) Nordrhein-Westfalen seems to keeping their case numbers steady and more manageable. So, moving forward, perhaps Portugal and maybe Canada, rather than Israel, should be our benchmarks for how well highly-vaccinated first world countries fair against delta and other variants. And it also helps to evaluate the data on a subnational level to see regional trends.

 

[Andrew C]

Speaking of the "what about Germany?" debate yesterday, here's a graph that shows several European countries' vaccine progress:

COVID-19 Data Explorer

Explore global data on COVID-19.

ourworldindata.org

I was more than a little surprised. Several of the countries that have a reputation for getting things right most of the time are near the bottom of the list (Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway). Portugal manages to top the list at 87% of the eligible population fully vaccinated. For comparison, the worst performer on the list is Austria at 63%, which is still better than the US's pathetic mark at 59%. The worst area of Germany for both vaccination rates and COVID cases right now, is (unsurprisingly) the same federal state, Saxony. So, moving forward, perhaps Portugal and maybe Canada, rather than Israel, should be our benchmarks for how well highly-vaccinated first world countries fair against delta and other variants.

Issue with Canada comparison is they got hit with the delta prior to their vaccine roll-out....but yes, they have a good vaccination rate.

 

[DisneyCane]

This is a better visualization adjusting for population. You'd be surprised how much better Canada did in this recent wave.

*ignoring North West Territories with a population of 45k, population adjustment gets dicey.

COVID-19 in the U.S.: How do Canada's provinces rank against American states?

Looking at confirmed coronavirus cases per million people, how do the U.S. states compare to Canada's provinces and territories?

www.ctvnews.ca

My point wasn't that Canada isn't fairing better due to higher vaccination, it was that there is no trend towards "COVID zero" evident in Canada, even with the high vaccination rate.

 

[JoeCamel]

Speaking of the "what about Germany?" debate yesterday, here's a graph that shows several European countries' vaccine progress:

COVID-19 Data Explorer

Explore global data on COVID-19.

ourworldindata.org

I was more than a little surprised. Several of the countries that have a reputation for getting things right most of the time are near the bottom of the list (Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway). Portugal manages to top the list at 87% of the eligible population fully vaccinated. For comparison, the worst performer on the list is Austria at 63%, which is still better than the US's pathetic mark at 59%. The worst area of Germany for both vaccination rates and COVID cases right now, is (unsurprisingly) the same federal state, Saxony, with Thüringen and Bavaria not far behind sharing the same pattern, while highly vaccinated (and very densely populated) Nordrhein-Westfalen seems to keeping their case numbers steady and more manageable. So, moving forward, perhaps Portugal and maybe Canada, rather than Israel, should be our benchmarks for how well highly-vaccinated first world countries fair against delta and other variants. And it also helps to evaluate the data on a subnational level to see regional trends.

I've always looked up to Canada